by T. G. Ayer
What the heck?
“Did he actually talk about this in front of you?” Kai asked, her eyes wide with disbelief. She didn’t seem at all surprised at Lily’s accusation and she looked unimpressed that Storm would discuss such details with Lily as a witness.
What was Kai thinking?
I knew what I’d be wondering. If Storm was this bad guy they were making him out to be, then I’d need to think of him as a bad guy. And bad guys never talk about sensitive stuff in front of captives unless said captive was about to meet with a dead end.
Lily’s head bobbed up and down. “Yes. It’s like he wanted me to know everything he was doing. Like it was a game. Sometimes he’d keep me tied up in the front room, facing all the monitors on the wall so that I could see what was happening.”
Was Storm the same person Lily was talking about? This couldn’t be true.
“Monitors,” Kai asked.
“Yes.” Lily whispered with a nod as she turned and walked over to the wall on the left and searched the top of the mantelpiece.
After a few seconds she retrieved a remote control, pressed a button and aimed it at the wall.
The wall shifted and a panel slid up, revealing a series of monitors, all showing videos of various locations and people. From the digital clocks on the corners of each monitor it was clear the feeds were live.
One of the screens showed a pretty young redhead, walking in a park.
I glanced over at Kai and stopped in my tracks. The terrified look on her face confirmed she’d seen something, the tears in her eyes said it was bad.
I tracked her gaze to a monitor that showed camera feed from a hospital room where Anjelo lay, unmoving, tubes leaving and entering his body in a convoluted mess.
My heart tightened as I watched Kai protect Lily from the sight, moving so Lily would look at her and not at the monitor. Watched as Kai blinked away tears and tried to remain strong.
I hurried over to Kai. “What do you need me to do?”
She glanced up at my face. We’d been through a fair amount of drama together, and despite my worry, and my concern about how Storm was entangled in this mess, helping Kai when she needed me was my top priority.
“Just hold on for two seconds while I send a text.”
She cocked her chin at Lily and I nodded, heading over to the girl. Holding her around her shoulders, I guided her to the sofa and sat her down so she faced the floor-to-ceiling windows. I’d been in this room not so long ago and I’d had no idea what was going on behind walls and hidden in rooms.
What was Storm doing? And why?
Glancing over at Kai, I wondered who she was texting. Her expression was an odd blend of annoyance and relief so I hoped she was making progress.
As she tapped her foot and waited, she glanced up at the screen, her spine stiffening so sharply that I had to look for myself.
The screen showed Anjelo, tied to a metal table, a couple of orderlies hovering around him, untying the straps around his ankles and wrists. They piled him onto a gurney and disappeared off-screen. Panic filled Kai’s eyes and I rubbed Lily’s back hoping she wouldn’t choose that moment to turn around.
Kai’s cellphone bleeped and then she was tapping messages and her foot in turn.
A few seconds later she waved at me and met my gaze, relief and hope shining in her green eyes. “I know where he is.”
I rose and Lily followed suit, the two of us hurrying to Kai, eager to get on with it.
“Let’s get going then,” I said, looking pointedly at the monitors and then sending Kai a questioning glance. Kai chose to ignore it and proceeded to send off another barrage of texts.
Finally she gave me a nod. “We need to get to Omega. They’re keeping Logan in a facility within the building. Daniel couldn’t be any more specific than that, so we’ll have to do some searching.”
I wasn’t listening to anything else.
Logan?
Logan was being kept in an Omega facility. Which meant he wasn’t with Saleem. Which meant either Saleem lied to me about Logan joining him on his Mithras mission, or something had happened to change their plans.
I was hoping the latter.
I hid my confusion and nodded, not bothering to ask who Daniel was. “You two wait here. I’ll do a quick recon.” I projected, following Logan’s feedback, tracking it back from the last contact he’d made with Kailin.
I saw the room, as if in a nightmare, all cold and lifeless. And Logan, encased in a metal pod, covered by a swirling white vapor and crystals of ice.
Sucking in a harsh breath, my eyes snapped open.
“Come,” I said, my voice a little shaky, “I found him.”
Lily and Kai each took a hold of one of my hands, and I jumped. We arrived inside the shadowed room, right beside a closed metal door. A light shone from the room beyond it, and my heart stuttered, worried more now for Kai and how she was going to take Logan’s condition.
Kai looked a little unsettled, yet still determined.
“Where are we?” Lily whispered, her lynx eyes taking on an eerie glow as she probed the darkness with her night vision.
“We’re in the room next to the one where they’re keeping Logan. See, over there,” I spoke softly, pointing at the window beside me. It revealed another room right next door.
Kai’s horrified gasp sliced deep into me, and I felt her pain, knew how I’d feel if one of my own loved ones were in a similar position.
Her words were whispered, and yet in my ears it sounded like a horrified scream.
“He’s frozen.”
Chapter 23
Lily cried out, almost choking on the sound of grief and horror. I knew she was close to Logan too, so this would be a doubly painful blow for her. Tears burned ferociously behind my eyes and I blinked them back.
Kai didn’t look any better, her eyes now deep in the hollows of her sockets, dark smudges beneath her lids making her look haunted. I wished I could make it all go away.
Wishful thinking.
Not helping.
I studied the room in which Logan was being held, projecting inside for greater detail. Some kind of biological research lab. Wraparound shelving and tables, glass-fronted cupboards filled with bottles of chemicals. And dozens of medical machines.
Omega had certainly spared no expense.
The contraption keeping Logan frozen looked like something out of a bad sci-fi movie, all metal and blue glowing lights. His face was half hidden behind the glass window, his skin gray and shimmering with ice crystals.
Beside the window sat a keypad and a panel showing oxygen levels and temperature fluctuation. Below the panel was a white label bearing a warning that stilled my heart.
“How the hell do we get him out of there?” Kai’s whispered question shattered the tense silence, bringing me back to her side.
“I had a look,” I shook my head, hating to be the bearer of such horrible news. “It’s very secure. It also has a self-destruct. We need to enter the correct code or the cryo-chamber will kill him.”
Kai stared at me, her eyes wide, her skin white as the blood drained from her face. She glanced back at Logan, horror in her eyes making her look like the living dead.
“Kai?” I asked, wanting to pull her free from what I suspected was a spiral into helplessness. I wouldn’t blame her either. This was too much for most people to handle. “What do we do?” I urged, hoping to pull her from her grief.
She only took a moment to think before shifting her gaze to mine. “There’s someone that may be able to help us,” Kai said, her voice shaky. “He’s at my parent’s place at Tukats. Bring him here as fast as possible. I think he may be the only person who can crack the code without tripping the self-destruct.”
I nodded, satisfied that we were moving, that we now had something to do that could get Logan free. “Be back in a sec.”
I jumped straight to Kai’s home in Tukats, landing in the front hall. A step into the living room revealed a roaring fire but
an empty room. The kitchen, gleaming in chrome and wood, gave me the same answer.
I projected and scanned the house finding the study occupied by a young man who gave off not a single sign of being alive.
Kai had a vamp living in her home?
I couldn’t waste time wondering if my friend had finally lost it. Instead, I jumped to the study and appeared beside him.
“Sorry to disturb,” I said startling the boy. He flinched so hard that his chair slid back a whole foot. I held a hand up. “Sorry to frighten you. Kai sent me. We need to hurry.”
He took one look at me, grabbed his laptop and threw a black rucksack bag over his shoulder. I jumped him to Kai, reappearing as Lily paced up and down in front of Logan’s prison. The vamp-boy held his stomach, then shifted his free hand to his mouth.
“Geez,” he said, his throat hoarse, his eyes scanning his surroundings. “How come that was worse than when Jess took us to—” His jaw clamped shut as he caught sight of Logan in the next room. “Can you get me in there now?” He glanced at me.
I nodded, grabbed his forearm and jumped him into the room, materializing beside the cryo-pod. He flipped the flap of his rucksack open and retrieved a set of cables. Setting his laptop on the floor he connected his keypad to the pod, then focused, his fingers flying over the keys.
I left him there and returned to Kai, still worried about the two girls. Wordlessly, I held out a hand to each of them. They took it just as silently and I jumped them inside the room, landing beside the vamp-boy.
“Aren’t we worried about sensors picking up our presence?” Kai asked studying the pod as the vamp typed.
He glanced up for a brief moment. “Don’t worry about that. I’ve disabled the sensors. They only had one at the door to detect people entering the room.”
Kai nodded almost absently, as if a single sensor was the least of her problems. I didn’t doubt it. Seconds later, she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “How much longer?” she asked, her expression bordering on desperate.
“Give me a minute.” The vamp-boy seemed to understand Kai very well. He kept his tone low and firm, subtly helping her to maintain her calm. “The cryo-process has already begun. Unplugging him now without being super-careful, may hurt him if not kill him.”
Kai swallowed and stared at Logan for a moment before shifting her attention to me. “Is it possible to transport him out of the room to safety?”
I didn’t hesitate.
“Yes, I could do that fairly easily as long as I don’t have to transport the whole pod. I don’t have the energy right now for such a huge jump.” I hated to admit it but in such a situation, honesty was best.
The vamp glanced at us. “You don’t need to take the pod. As long as you take the wiring and the generator he will survive.”
I opened my mouth to agree but a beeping interrupted me. The panel on the pod began to blink and a countdown appeared, ticking off the seconds until something awful happened.
Kai gasped. “Crap. You must have set something off.”
“Take him now,” said the vamp, his face expressionless.
Before I moved, Kai glanced at me. “As soon as you leave him, come straight back for Lily.”
I gave her a nod. “You guys ready?”
After they all agreed, I jumped, carefully landing inside the pod beside Logan. The space was cramped but the design of the chamber was spacious enough to accommodate the two of us, allowing me to materialize without morphing with Logan’s cells.
It only took a moment to grab hold of him, and to sense and hold onto the generator and the cables connected to it.
Then I jumped us to Kai’s family home.
Chapter 24
We arrived inside the kitchen. I was thinking ahead, choosing the tiled floor of the kitchen rather than the wood and carpet in the front hall.
Holding Logan carefully as I solidified, I laid his frozen form on the floor. Then checked for a pulse. Still nothing, but already with the change in temperature, the skin on Logan’s face was beginning to glisten as the ice melted.
I left him there and went straight back for the girl. “Lily, you can come and look after Logan for me?”
Lily gave Kai a glance, which could have meant either who-the-hell-is-she-to-give-me-orders or are-you-going-to-be-okay-alone. Still, she said nothing as I whisked her away, landing beside Logan.
Lily gasped and sank to the knees, her pants soaking up water from a melting Logan. Lily checked his temperature with the back of her hand and muttered something under her breath.
“He’s thawing out fast.”
“Hopefully not too fast,” said Lily as she checked the rest of his limbs for ice residue.
I stepped closer. “If he’s no longer frozen, perhaps we can put him on a bed somewhere?” I knelt beside Lily, helping her get her hand beneath Logan.
She looked up at me. “Are you going to jump him?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t think he can handle a jump like that in his condition. As much as it looks easy, it takes a toll on the body. And mid-thaw we could end up only damaging him further.”
Lily nodded slowly, then grabbed Logan by the waist. She looked about to lift him when I said, “Wait. I’ll help.”
“I don’t need your help,” she said, then immediately looked contrite. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.”
I waved her off, not needing an apology when things were this intense.
But Lily touched my arm. “I am sorry. I only mean that I’m a walker. I’ll use my shifter strength to help me carry him upstairs. You can go back to fetch Kai.”
I nodded, noticing she didn’t say anything about fetching Anjelo. In fact, she seemed oddly calm about it, almost accepting—which was more than strange.
I left Lily and returned to Kai, feeling the pull of fatigue, the distraction of everything else going on in my life.
“Are you okay?” Kai asked, looking at me, concerned.
I waved a hand at the question. “What’s going on?”
The vamp, having put his stuff away, rose to stand beside me, the very same question reflected in his eyes.
“Anjelo.” Kai swallowed. From her demeanor it was clear she was struggling not to cry. “He’s somewhere here in this facility. When I last saw him on the monitors in Storm’s apartment, it didn’t look good.”
I nodded although I wasn’t confident that I’d return with a positive answer. “Let me go and have a look. I might be a few minutes because I have no idea how big the place is.”
Fortunately I didn’t have to go too far. They’d kept the younger walker a few halls away, in a room almost identical to Logan’s. From the looks of it, they’d been ready to take him away, probably to the morgue. Or worse.
When I materialized beside Kai, she gave me an almost grateful look, as if I’d returned in time to save her, from what I wasn’t sure.
She reached for me, and the vamp followed suit. I jumped her to Anjelo’s side.
After a moment of silence, Kai looked at the vamp. “Are there any sensors in here?”
He glanced down at the laptop tucked in the crook of his elbow and gave a nod. “But it doesn’t matter now. The facility is empty. There’s no sign of anyone around.”
“Maybe they found out that Storm has been taken?” Kai shifted her body, seeming reluctant to look at Anjelo. Then she straightened and moved toward the gurney. Putting two fingers to the boy’s neck—which I already knew was a waste of time—she waited to hear a heartbeat.
I’d understood that walkers possessed heightened senses, hearing being one of them. And yet she still performed the task.
I didn’t even want to imagine what she was going through. But there was one thing I did know about Kailin Odel, I knew she’d be blaming herself.
The vamp’s voice pulled her from wherever her thoughts had gone. “How long has he been dead?” His eyes were large and round as he stared at the dead boy.
Kai’s fingers folded into fists
. “He’s very cold,” her voice shook, “Maybe it’s just the temperature of the room.”
I knew better, but I didn’t say anything.
She took a shaky breath. “Someone came into the room,” she said. “And unstrapped him, and took him away on a gurney. But I can’t be sure that he was alive at that time.”
“He could already have been dead when you were watching him being taken away,” I said softly. Kai had to come to terms with the reality of the boy’s death. Easier said than done when she’d only just recently lost her own sister.
But she turned her back on me, her attention focused solely on the dead boy.
I let Kai sit for a few minutes with the body, but as time drifted by, the danger of being discovered by Omega increased.
I touched her shoulder, curving an arm around her. “Kai,” I said softly. “We should get out of here.”
Kai looked at me, her green eyes sparkling with tears. She blinked them back and smoothed her hands down the sides of her pants, taking a quick shaky breath. Then she nodded and gave me a half-smile.
I’d never admired her more. For her strength, her conviction, her ability to put the needs of all others before her own.
I jumped Kai, her vamp hacker and Anjelo to Kai’s kitchen, too late remembering that Logan had melted all over the floor leaving the place more than a little wet.
Lily had left a small trail of droplets in her wake as she’d taken him upstairs.
My head spun after the effort of jumping three people at the same time and I was surprised that my nose wasn’t bleeding.
Kai spoke, her voice bringing me back to the present. “Help me get him to the smaller lounge.” She cocked her chin up the hall, and I reached for the body.
I jumped him quickly to the room Kai had indicated, and settled him onto the sofa. I tucked a few cushions beneath his head and straightened to watch him. He could have been sleeping, so peaceful was his face.
I only hoped his afterlife was at least half as peaceful as his expression implied.